Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan today came under attack from BJP over a newspaper interview in which he was claimed to have said Congress would have been "decimated" had he acted against three of his predecessors under scanner in the Adarsh scam.
"A prominent newspaper has made a sensational claim. It says former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, in an interview, has admitted he was a part of the corruption in Maharashtra and he made compromises in running the state of Maharashtra," BJP general secretary incharge of the state Rajiv Pratap Rudy told a press conference.
"Chavan has accepted that had he acted against former CMs Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushilkumar Shinde and Ashok Chavan, the party would have been decimated," he said.
Chavan, known for his clean image, had taken over as Chief Minister after Ashok Chavan had got embroiled in the Adarsh scandal.
"I must say that Adarsh brought under scanner Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushil Shinde and Ashok Chavan--the top Congress leadership in the state. If I had taken action against them, the party would have been decimated in Maharashtra.
"We could not shed them. If I had sent them to jail, it would have hit the party organisation - this was a major response. The party would have split - nobody articulated that openly then. Neither could I," Chavan was claimed to have told the Kolkata-based English daily.
